OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JUNE 4, 1872. . 483 



for establishing his colony, when he learned that the filibuster Walker 

 had taken forcible possession of Honduras. Dr. Whelpley immedi- 

 ately left San Francisco with an armed party of fifty men, to protect 

 the interests of his projected colony. But his party was captured 

 by that of Walker, and Dr. Whelpley was himself impressed into 

 Walker's service, and put in charge of the sick and wounded men. 



He was detained by Walker for nearly a year, suffering meanwhile 

 great privations. He finally escaped to San Francisco, and thence 

 returned in 185G to New York, where he supported himself for a time 

 by writing short articles for the magazines upon the most varied sub- 

 jects, — History, Politics, Music, and Romance, as well as Science. 

 Some of these literary diversions, published in the " Atlantic Monthly," 

 bear witness both to the fluency of his pen and to his extraordinary 

 power of imagination. 



Henceforward, in spite of frequent severe attacks of asthma and 

 other pulmonary troubles, and almost incessant physical pain, he 

 devoted much time to the study of mechanics, and the invention of 

 machines for saving labor and fuel. His exceedingly ingenious and 

 efficient devices for crushing and pulverizing rocks and ores, for burn- 

 ing fuel in the state of powder, and for applying the heat of the fuel 

 thus burned to the reduction of metallic ores, and to the generation 

 of steam, are familiar to many members of the Academy. Descrip- 

 tions of them have been widely published in the journals relating to 

 mechanics and metallurgy. 



An ingenious steam-engine of his own invention was exhibited at 

 the Institute of Technology in the winter of 1869-70. During the 

 last twenty years of his life he was deeply interested in the study of 

 engines, — hot air, gas, and steam, — and he has left nearly three hun- 

 dred original designs for their construction. His most recent contribu- 

 tion to scientific literature was a series of articles in Van Nostrand's 

 " Engineering Magazine." The last of these papers, published in Jan- 

 uary, 1872, was entitled "A Critical Examination of the Ideas of 

 Inertia and Momentum." 



Dr. Whelpley was remarkable both for his power of abstract rea- 

 soning and for the vivacity and scope of his imagination. His was 

 essentially a deductive and inventive mind. Its chief defect was 

 its immense versatility. By mere power of concentration and force of 

 will, he kept at bay the physical pain and distress incident to the pul- 

 monary disease which harassed his later years. The most severe 



